EDITIONS

Follow us

President Donald Trump on Monday applauded Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's responses to questioning at his Thursday hearing, saying, “I think the judge has been pretty amazing about describing his situation with alcohol and with beer." | Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Trump on Kavanaugh: 'I was surprised at how vocal he was about the fact that he likes beer'

President Donald Trump on Monday defended his Supreme Court nominee’s drinking habits, and said that he didn’t believe Judge Brett Kavanaugh lied or mischaracterized his drinking during his confirmation hearing.

“I watched him and I was surprised at how vocal he was about the fact that he likes beer,” Trump said at a press conference.

Story Continued Below

“He's had a little bit of difficulty. He talked about things that happened when he drank,” he said, arguing that Kavanaugh had a good memory of his drinking habits as far back as three decades ago but that no one was scrutinizing Kavanaugh’s drinking habits in more recent years.

“This is not a man that said that ... he was perfect with respect to alcohol,” said Trump, who abstains from alcohol himself. “I thought he was actually, going back so many years, I thought he was excellent.”

Kavanaugh’s drinking habits have comeunder the microscope as multiple allegations of sexual misconduct have been leveled while Kavanaugh was allegedly intoxicated in high school and college. Trump has authorized the FBI to look into the accusations, which Kavanaugh denies.

POLITICO Playbook newsletter

Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics

Email

By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday on one of the assault allegations, Kavanaugh was asked if he was a heavy drinker, whether he had ever passed out as a result of excessive alcohol consumption, or if he had ever drank so much that he experienced loss of memory.

Kavanaugh denied that he had, though he said multiple times throughout the hearing that “I like beer.”

Kavanaugh’s description of his alcohol intake and his behavior while drunk have been disputed by some who say they knew him in college and who say that he was frequently intoxicated and became belligerent when drunk. Senate Democrats have seized on those descriptions as proof of a potentially disqualifying lack of honesty.

But Trump on Monday applauded his nominee’s responses to questioning. “I think the judge has been pretty amazing about describing his situation with alcohol and with beer," he said.

Trump, who was asked whether he thought Kavanaugh should be barred from serving on the Supreme Court if he was found to have lied or mischaracterized his drinking habits while under oath, said that he believed Kavanaugh’s testimony.

“I don't think he did,” Trump said. “I'm not a drinker and I can honestly say I never had a beer in my life. One of my only good traits. I don't drink."

Even so, he said, “I watched that hearing and I watched a man saying that he did have difficulty as a young man with a drink,” adding later that “I don’t think it’s a big discrepancy.”